RE-OPENING of railways is always a cause for celebration, so when I discovered that a delightfully scenic and extensive narrow gauge system in the south of Czechia had re-started full-line services in April 2026, almost four years after its previous operator had gone bust, I felt compelled to pay a return visit.
Having spent a glorious few days in July 2022 travelling and photographing the busy 79km (50-mile) 760mm-gauge Jindřichohradecká úzkokolejka (JHMD) system, that comprised two branches radiating from the town of Jindřichův Hradec, it had come as a real shock to discover that operations had been halted less than three months later (on 2 October 2022).
Returning to Jindřichův Hradec the following year (April 2023) it was hard to believe that the little trains would ever run again, with a mixed line of old and new coaches standing in the station along with a couple of railcars, and one of the line’s three diesel locos locked in an engine shed and still bearing the wreath it had carried while working the final service.
But back at Jindřichův Hradec during August 2026 it was a joy to see regular diesel and seasonal steam services restored to both the 33km (21-mile) southern route to Nová Bystřice – that passes through a forested holiday area known as Czech Canada that is close to the Austrian border – and a 46km (29-mile) northern route to a town called Obrataň.
The narrow gauge system had been abandoned by the Czech state rail operator, České Dráhy (ČD) in February 1998, when it was handed over to a locally-based private company, JHMD, which had secured local financial support for its diesel services and also ran hugely popular seasonal steam-worked tourist services.
After the shock 2022 collapse of JHMD, the entire railway infrastructure was put up for sale, and the winning bidder in 2025 was a group called Gepard Express, a business owned by a businessman and rail enthusiast called Albert Fikáček. Helped by a team of volunteers, a short section of line from Nová Bystřice to Hůrky re-opened, with services over the entire network re-starting in April 2026.
Returning to spend a couple of days riding and photographing the trains (6-7 August) it was hard to believe that the system had been shut for almost four years, with crowded trains on both lines, fully-loaded steam services and many groups of young people and large numbers of cyclists using the trains and boarding/alighting at many of the remote intermediate stops.
During its final summer timetable in 2022, JHMD services comprised two-hourly departure from Jindřichův Hradec to Nová Bystřice from 07.23 until 17.23, with returns from 09.07 until 19.07 and supplemented daily (except Tuesdays and Thursdays) by a steam service departing Jindřichův Hradec at 10.39 and returning after a two-hour layover in Nová Bystřice at 15.18.
Services on the longer Obrataň route during that final summer of JHMD operations comprised nine through journeys, most of which had long layovers en route at the principal intermediate station, Kamenice nad Lipou, along with a number of short workings between Jindřichův Hradec and Kamenice nad Lipou and others between Kamenice nad Lipou and Obrataň.
Summer 2026 operations (until 4 October) are on a rather more modest scale, with just three full-line round trips each day from Jindřichův Hradec to Nová Bystřice (departing at 09.09, 13.09 and 17.09) and a similar pattern on the line to Obrataň, with departures from Jindřichův Hradec at 09.04, 13.04 and 17.04.
Steam-worked tourist services, on which a significant premium is charged to the very modest fares on diesel services, follow a similar pattern to previous years, with a round trip to Nová Bystřice operating on Wednesdays, Fridays and Saturdays until 29 August, then Saturdays-only until 26 September, and a Thursday round trip to Kamenice nad Lipou that operates until 27 August.
Steam services during my August 2026 visit were in the hands of a Polish (PKP) 0-8-0- loco bearing the number U46-101 (formerly Px48-1916) which came to the railway in 2009. Meantime the line’s oldest loco, a delightful Austrian 0-6-2T built by Krauss & Co. at Linz in 1898 was parked in the engine shed.
Until its sudden closure, services on the JHMD were being worked by a trio of ageing (1954-59 built) ex- ČD Class 705 (T47) bo-bo diesel locos (T47.005/015/019), along with two of four refurbished Polish railcars that had been delivered in 2014. These had clearly proved unpopular, as the first two (M27-001/2) were dumped out of use at Jindřichův Hradec.
All four of the railcars were dumped in a siding on my August 2026 visit, when on the three days I spent in the area (6-8 August) the Obrataň service comprised maroon-liveried T47-005 towing a single coach, with a van for bikes added on 7 August, while purple-liveried T47-019 was powering services to Nová Bystřice that were formed of three coaches and one cycle van.
The third T47 loco I had seen working four years earlier (T47-015) now bears the same maroon livery as T47-005 and was shut away in an engine shed, while alongside the Austrian tank engine was a small diesel shunter (T29-014) that can apparently be used, if necessary, on passenger services.
As I wrote following my 2022 visit, finding good photo spots is not always easy when you are reliant on trains and places accessible from stations, something that has become even more of a challenge due to the rather more modest timetable of the revived railway system.
But beginning my visit by travelling to Kamenice nad Lipou on the first train of the day (6 August), I repeated the 15-minute walk I had taken four years earlier to capture the arriving the steam service in a delightfully wooded location where, from an ungated level crossing, there was a great view of U46-101 as it steamed up a gradient towards its destination.
There had been a heavy downpour on the morning of 6 August, so after photographing the steam loco storming up the bank I then walked past the stationary train on my return to Kamenice station, only to see the train reversing as the crew gave themselves a second shot at climbing the bank into the station, having failed on the first attempt, but succeeding on the second time and giving me a bonus action shot.
On the following day (Friday, 7 August) my aim was to capture the steam service on its journey to Nová Bystřice, so took the first diesel service at 09.09 as far as that line’s principal intermediate stop, Kunžak-Lomy, where there would be the chance to capture the arriving steam service and its departure, after a lengthy water stop and being passed by the day’s first northbound diesel service.
Here I found a good spot alongside the railway embankment just north of the station and the place where it crossed over a main road. I then walked to a quiet crossing south of the station to capture the returning diesel service, shortly before photographing the steam working that had left the station after its 50-minute stop there at 12.00 (09.45 ex-Jindřichův Hradec).
While the southern route to Nová Bystřice was hugely popular with walkers and cyclists and passes through a major holiday area, local traffic was a mainstay of the Obrataň line. So with services far more limited than prior to 2022 and possibly only operating daily during the summer, I was intrigued to see how popular these workings were proving to be.
I counted 26 of us in the single coach of the 09.04 to Obrataň on 6 August, with more joiners on the way to Kamenice, where around 20 of us alighted. Travelling on later that day to Obrataň, there was a modest number of us on board, but the return journey to Jindřichův Hradec at 15.01 was rammed for a large part of the trip, filled by two separate parties of youngsters, whose journeys luckily did not overlap.
Travelling on the busier Nová Bystřice route the following day (7 August) the three coaches of my 09.09 departure were as well loaded as they had been when I last made this trip in July 2022, with huge numbers of cyclists boarding and leaving at a variety of intermediate stations and causing some delay due to the time taken to load and unload bikes.
Fares on the diesel-worked services are very cheap, with a single for the 46kms (29 miles) from Jindřichův Hradec to Obrataň costing just CSK73 (£2.60) while a single for the 33km (21 mile) trip to Nová Bystřice costs CSK55 (£2.00). There is a 50% reduction in these fares for children, students and over 65s.
Getting to Jindřichův Hradec is remarkably straightforward and and takes around two and a half hours by train from Prague on an hourly service south to a junction called Veselí nad Lužnicí, then changing here onto a connecting regional service for the final 30 minutes of the trip.
I bought tickets for the mainline journeys via the state railway website (www.cd.cz) where there is an English translation showing train times and paid just CSK102 (£3.65) each way (senior 50% rate), which seemed amazing value for a journey of almost exactly 100 miles!
This is a really delightful corner of continental Europe to visit and for anyone tempted I can highly recommend the place I stayed in again, Penzionek JH, that is an easy 10-minute walk from the railway station. I paid €50 (£43.50) a night for a large double room via Booking.com, but could probably have paid less if I had booked direct via www.penzionek-jh.cz
RailwayWorld.net 
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